Power generators have the requirement to provide power in an “on demand” mode. They must generate, on occasion, every last megawatt possible. Normally, most plants will operate from a cost standpoint to maximize the cost per megawatt to operate to minimize certain parameters or to stay within certain federally regulated guidelines, such as for NOx. However, plants have a finite size and output capability and, therefore, all these parameters are defined in terms of the particular megawatts that are generated. In some situations, such as times of peak consumer demand for power on very hot summer days or very cold winter days, the demand on a particular power plant is such that generation of the maximum number of megawatts is a primary goal. The reason for this is that, during these times, the price of an additional megawatts is very high. If a producer is unable to deliver the desired megawatts, they may be required to purchase power at these higher costs to supply their consumer's needs. It would therefor be desirable to produce as many of the additional megawatts as possible before buying this additional power.
At present, power plants utilize a control system for controlling the overall operation of the plant, which control system is interfaced with an operator to allow the operator to adjust various parameters of the power plant. By reading the outputs of the power plant, such as furnace temperatures, etc., the operator can determine certain parameters of the operation thereof. These are typically manipulated via adjustment of the setpoints applied to the controller to allow the power plant to function in a certain manner. Each operator may have a different manner by which they adjust the operation of the plant through the setpoints and, as such, the plant can operate in many different modes, depending upon which operator is actually on call at the time. Further, the goals for the operation of the plant, although generally stated to the operators, is sometimes difficult to achieve with the current available tools for controlling the system. It is not that the control system does not provide the ability to control the plant to achieve a desired operating condition but, rather, it is the ability to interpret all of the outputs of the plant as a whole and make a decision based upon all of the outputs as to achieving a particular goal, such as extracting additional megawatts out of the system.